Humanity's Last Hope
by Johto Gunner
Summary: Taking place in the aftermath of the Pokemorph Revolution, a teenage human struggles to survive less than favorable conditions. Can he and his friends survive in the ruined city of Manhattan? Are my summaries cheesy? Probably...
1. 00: Prolouge

_**Guess whose back?**_

_**Been a while since I've uploaded anything... let's see if I still have a good story in me.**_

_**Now for fans for the original HLH I have some bad news... As of now, I will be discontinuing the old story.**_

_**This isn't an easy decision, mind you. I've worked on it for long, it does hurt to start over again... but I honestly, I'm ashamed of much of my earlier work. Many of the characters aren't as developed as I wanted and I tried to please so many people, tried to cram so much into one story, the plot just kinda fell apart.**_

_**So as of now, I'm rebooting the series and trying again. This time, I'm going keep the focus on Mark and his friends and I'll not to deviate too much form them. I apologize for this, but I believe this reboot will be better than the old. Much of the old story is going to be here but with a few improvements. Hopefully I won't screw too badly this time.**_

_**Good news is I'm keeping the older story up for old times sake, however, I do plan for the new story to be different from the old. How different? Don't worry, most of your favorite characters will still be here. The plot will be noticeably different but a few ideas I used in the old will be included in the new.**_

_**Alright, enough talk! Let's reboot this story!**_

_**Chapter 00: Prologue**_

I often look at the city across the river and wonder what life was like before the war… before humanity's downfall. As a child, I often heard many stories of what life was like back when there was peace between our two races… before things got nasty.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? The look on your face explains it all, you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, do you?

Where to begin? Where to begin… I guess we could start out with how we first met them and how we always seemed to have been at war with each other. Hell, our first encounter with them was anything but pleasant. A long time ago, humanity came across a strange tribe of creatures that strongly resembled their Pokémon partners. These "poké-humans" were seen as barbaric beasts due to way they both looked and lived and were instantly hated by the humans.

At first, it was a very uneasy co-existence. Humans considered these "beasts" spawns of the devil; insulting, attacking and driving these so-called monsters from their towns. The creatures known as pokémorphs soon came to hate humans due to the way they were being treated, and would begin to attack and pillage small towns to get back at the humans.

You can guess what happened next. Humanity retaliated by wiping out entire morph villages and the morphs would respond by doing the same to their aggressors. The first full blown war between the two races erupted, causing humanity to band together for the first time in history to face their common foe.

The war between the two races dragged on for years, but exactly how long isn't known. Some people like to think it only lasted for a month, others believe it lasted for decades. Regardless of how long the war lasted, we all know who won: Humanity. While the ancient pokémorphs were much stronger and had power humans could only dream of having, they were seen as simple creatures back then and were divided into proud tribes that would sooner die than work together against a common foe. Humans had better technology and tactics and often used pokémon to do the fighting for them.

After the war, humanity "tamed" the pokémorphs, destroying what little identity they had left and turned them into slaves, forcing them to do all the work humans felt was beneath them and that included being cannon fodder. Hell, war between two human kingdoms broke out soon after the first pokémorph rebellion.

This started an interesting where humanity would start wars and the pokémorphs would fight and for the humans. Every conflict since then has been fought primarily by pokémorphs, from ancient wars to more modern conflicts, the morphs were nothing but living weapons for the humans to abuse. It's not like they had any say in the matter… back then, they were considered property.

It wasn't until rather recently that activists within the pokémorph community started to fight for their rights. These activists were generally opposed to violence, and instead fought with words and challenged the human laws they found unfair. It took a little over a hundred years for the morphs to be accepted by humanity and many activists lost their lives trying to change the human laws.

As you can guess, even with the laws in place and morphs freed, we all didn't live together in perfect harmony. Though, for a time, people actually we really could live in peace… but let's be real here, there will never be peace between our two species. There's simply too much hate between the races for that to happen. And that hate found an interesting host.

In 2010, a new religion started up called "The church of Giratina." As you can guess form the name, it was a cult group that worshiped the pokémon god of death. Giratina was said to have been banished by Arceus to another realm due to its violent behavior and destructive nature. It's been said that Giratina is ruler of the Distorted World, a vast, empty world where trapped souls are doomed to wonder forever.

Cult groups are never a good thing and this one was especially frightening. They were pokémorph equivalent to the Nazis of WWII, believing that Giratina's purpose was to wipeout humanity so that the pokémorphs could rule the world. They despised humans and would go to any lengths to insult and even injure innocent people simply because they were human or associated with humans.

Naturally, no one took these insane cultists seriously, they were lacking in numbers and brain cells so everyone ignored these morons for the most part… however that soon changed.

Three years after the religion foundation, a new leader took over the church and changed it from a typical group of mindless cultists into something more organized and more intelligent. When the church first started out, they had a handful of nutjobs running around New York City, usually insulting every human that passed by on the street and making fools of themselves. After the change in leadership, they quickly grew into an organization with around ten thousand members worldwide, not the kind of group that could be easily ignored anymore.

The reason for their group's sudden increase in membership? Their new leader. A mysterious figure that people still don't know much about, even to this day. They never gave this leader an official name, nor they ever give people a picture of what he/she looked like. They only referred to them as "Missingno."

Missingno was said to have been the person that started point out the "injustices" being done to morph-kind. They believed that morphs weren't really free, were still seen as second class citizens, and were still being treated as slaves. To back up their argument, Missingno pointed out the fact that most morphs lived in rather mediocre living conditions with little income while most humans lived in better homes and had a lot more money to burn than their pokémorph counterparts.

At first, the morphs of the world didn't believe, perhaps they wanted to think this person was wrong, or that they would move on to better jobs if they just kept working hard. However, that went down the drain when a group of morphs workers suddenly decided to go on strike. They demands were reasonable, they felt they weren't earning enough money, and simply asked for a raise in their wages. The factory's management, however, found a cheaper solution. Instead of negotiating with morphs that were on strike, the factories found it easier and less time consuming to simply replace the protesting staff with humans who were believed to have been paid more than their pokémorph counterparts.

This was the moment the church was waiting for. Using this injustice, the Church of Gira was able to convince more followers that humanity was forcing them back into slavery and they only cared about their own race and not the pokémorphs. With the help of their leader, the Church of Gira organized more than two hundred thousand strikes across the world, their purpose wasn't to make people happy, but to create anger and hate between the two races. They wanted to start a war.

It all just snowballed from there, humanity saw the morphs as a bunch of whiners who getting upset over issues humans considered trivial while the pokémorphs believed that humanity was still using their race to benefit themselves and had no interest in treating morphs as equals. Tensions between the two soon grew as people began to express their ideas through violence and hatred.

This drove the U.N. to make a unanimous decision in 2015, the removal and relocation of all pokémorphs in human cities. The morphs would be given their own cities far from human cites and would be left alone if they agreed to never set paw inside a human city ever again. Of course, these cities were to be routinely checked up on every now and again by mililtry officials who were afraid of a full-fledged rebellion.

Naturally, the morphs were furious with this plan. They firmly stood their ground against the humans and refused to abandon their homes. How the U.N. thought this was a good idea is beyond me. This only lead to more anger and riots. I guess at this point, they were just as eager to go to war as the Church of Gira was.

Ironically, around this time, another pokémorph spokesperson began to get popular, A raichu by the name Vanice Lighten. While he was against the obvious discrimination and hate the morphs were getting, he was also against the extreme measures the church and its followers were using and believed in a peaceful way to end this insanity. He and his followers were willing to work with humans to achieve their goals, something most people wouldn't never consider at this time.

You can probably guess that this guy wasn't too popular with a certain cult that was running rampant at the time, he did gain a sizable following of both pokémorphs and humans, moderates who wanted both sides to calm down and talk rather than fight.

Sadly, Lighten's group wasn't as popular as it could've been and more people favored violence over debating. The rioting grew worse as the two sides became grew angrier with each other. Both sides were just waiting to go to war with each other and neither side was going to listen to reason.

And what was the straw that broke the camarupt's back? On April 20th, 2017, there were two groups outside of Washington D.C., one side supporting the pokémorph relocation act, the other protesting it. You can guess who was for it and was against it. The two groups met at Pershing Park, near the Washington Monument. Tensions were high as the humans and morphs began using vulgar language against each other, they were all acting like animals in cells just waiting to tear each other apart. Lighten and his followers arrived much later they should've and attempted to get the groups to disperse and go home, they tried to keep the two species from starting an all out war… however that hope was lost when a gunshot rang out and Vance Lighten fell to the ground with a bullet wound in his back.

This single gunshot started and all out war between the two species, the two groups charged at each other and erupted into a bloody warzone. SWAT teams were dispatched a full hour later to attempt to restore order, but that left thousands of people, both human and morph, dead in the park. Among the dead was Vance Lighten and most of his followers.

When Lighten Died, so did any chances of peace between the two species. As the government stepped up their efforts to relocate the morphs, the Church of Giratina finally made their move and attacked the U.N. building, taking delegates hostage for almost a full day as cult declared war on humanity. That same day, entire cities were set ablaze by the revolting morphs, schools and parks were the sites of horrible firefights and even executions. It was chaos!

Humanity's response was just as harsh as their aggressors, soldiers were quick to shoot any morph they say, even if they didn't supported the Church and their insane beliefs, and drove all pokémorphs into hiding.

This drove the world into a long and grueling war that lasted for over a decade, humanity once more went up against their old foes, however this time the roles were reversed. Humanity, although had the better technology and man power, was still divided. They though fight in loose coalitions that kept each other at arm's length in term of trust and were ready to snap at each other at moment's notice.

Missingno. had planned on this and had left the war to six of cults smartest and cruelest followers. These Each officer was tasked with taking over a single continent by any means necessary. Using the distrust and hatred the humans had for each to their advantage, the officers tricked human nations into fighting each and when they were either tired or too busy to notice, the morphs would strike at their most vulnerable.

It took them the majority of the war to try and deceive their enemy, but it worked. By the end of the war, humanity was fighting themselves along with the pokémorph armies. It didn't take for the governments to exhaust their recourses and surrender. The newly established Gira Empire declared victory on January 14th 2027… same day I was born. History sure does love irony, doesn't it?

Now as you can probably guess, the Gira Empire had little respect for humanity after the war. Infact, they treat stray pokémon on the streets better they would treat a human child.

Humans are given very few luxuries and are shunned by pokémorph communities. Many humans live in the remains of their cities, living pathetic and worthless lives as they try to survive without any necessities. Most became bandits, raiding small towns and attacking trucks on highways to try and survive. Some of those bastards resort to doing business with the Empire, though it never seems to end well for the bandits.

Finally there are the slums and shanty towns that are usually located on the outskirts of morph cities. Basically these shanty towns were humans can beg morphs for food, water and clothing… for a price of course. These places are were your average morph goes to be bully and terrorize some poor human for kicks. At least, that's my own personal experience with these bastards…

It's worth mentioning that there are rumors of some human countries that survived the war and are still fighting the Gira Empire along with remnant forces of the old human armies. These rumors have existed since the end of war, though and I'm not sure how reliable they are seeing as they come from barely conscious drunks that live in the slums.

Now where does that leave me in all this? I'm one of a few hundred humans trying to survive in the ruins of New York City and one of a few dozen people who try and steal from the pokémorph communities. It isn't all that hard if you're smart and don't make too big a scene. Humans are not uncommon in certain parts of the city, but a lone human wondering the streets of New Morph City will draw a lot of unwanted attention. Much like a nerd trying to hang out with the cool kids, you'll get glares and if you make one wrong move, they will tear you apart.

My name is Mark Taylor and I'm just some punk teenager trying to survive the end of mankind. I live with my friends and little sister Marcia, the only real family I have left. This isn't an easy life and I sure as hell didn't ask for it… But I'll make the most out of it.

_**I hope you guys weren't too disappointed with the improved prologue. Sorry if it's a little longer than the old one... then again, I'm known for long chapters.**_

_**Shoutout to Skyfighter who has helped me once again.**_

_**So much to do, so little time. Here hoping I can update as quickly as I used to... no promises though.**_

_**...You guys think I should change the title too?**_

_**As Always: Love it, Hate it, Just Review it.**_

_**Gunner out.**_


	2. 01: Just Another Day

_**Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait what?! Did I just upload TWO chapter in ONE month?! I must be on drugs or something!**_

_**Seriously though, I wanted to get this out before Christmas... but seeing as my Christmas was crazy all hell, I made this as an end of the year special instead.**_

_**Hope you guys it! And welcome back Mark and Stephanie! We've missed you two!**_

**Humanity's Last Hope**

**Chapter 01: Just Another Day…**

_**Date: 06/26/2044  
10:32 Hours  
Subject: Stephanie Anne Evon  
Species: Espeon pokémorph  
Age: 17  
Location: Evon Towers Penthouse, New Morph City (Formerly known as, Long Island City, New York) Republic of Gira (Former known as United States of America)**_

I groaned as I slammed my head into my notebook. I'm never going to be able to finish this stupid assignment… With school finished and summer beginning, I was hoping me and my friends could go enjoy ourselves at the new spa they opened near the harbor. Sadly, my tutor had other plans.

"Something wrong, Steph?" My younger brother asked as he picked up a book that was sitting on my desk. He opened the book and glanced at the table of context. "…Oh, you have a history report to over the summer? Lucky! All I have are a couple of boring books to read." He said as began to skim through the book.

This is Gregory, the nerdy leafeon. He spends a lot of his free time reading history books and fooling around on his computer. Hell, his favorite topic seems to be the Pokémorph Revolution, seeing as he never shuts up about it… That gives me an idea.

"…Say Gregory, can you do your sweet older sister a small favor?" I politely asked him.

"No." He said as he quickly dropped the book on my desk and left our study.

"What?! W-wait!" I shouted as I quickly chased after him. "I didn't even tell you what the favor was!"

"Doesn't matter! I know you, Steph, and any favor you want requires me to do something I know I'm going to regret." The leafeon responded.

"…I was only going to ask you for a little help." I pouted.

"I doubt that." Greg growled. "Besides, why don't you do your own homework for once?"

"Because I don't need to. I can easily pay a nerd a hundred crowns to do my homework for me." I stated.

Gregory sighed as he began to rub his forehead. "Why do I even both talking to you?"

"…So you will do that report for me after all?" I hopefully asked.

My ears twitched as I heard a faint ding, followed by a groan. My twin brother stumbled into our home followed by a white-furred vulpix. "I'm home…" Richard groaned as he fell to the floor.

"Richie!" The vulpix yelled as she quickly picked him up.

"I thought umbreon were good at taking beatings." I laughed only to be elbowed by Greg.

My twin brother Richard gave me glare as he tried to catch his breath. "…Too tired… can't think… of a good retort…" He huffed as he held his chest. "Ian… is try… to kill me!"

The Vulpix helped my brother walk to the living room and helped him lie down on the couch. "Uncle Ian's been training Richie extra hard lately. I guess he didn't like the way Richie's last battle turned out." The vulpix explained as her ears flatted against her head.

"…Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" I asked the strange fox.

"…Do we have to do this every time I visit?" The fox sighed out a small, blue flame. I gave her a blank look and scratched my head. "I'm Carly Tales, remember? Your babysitter's niece? You've known me since we were kits! Not to mention, I'm your tutor, Stephanie!"

"OH! In that case, can you please write a five page paper on the Pokémorph Revolution for me, please?" I asked as I handed the vixen a pen and paper.

The vulpix scowled as she set the paper on fire, nearly burning my paw! "HEY! You could've just said 'no.'" I cried as I drop the burning paper and watched it quickly go up in flames.

"Just ignore her, Carly. You know she does this just to get under people's fur." Gregory said as he entered the kitchen.

"I already said 'NO!'" Our eldest sister shouted from the conference room as a well dressed houndoom morph was pushed out of the room by a female glaceon. "I don't care what you guys are paying, Evon Enterprises will not be part taking in anymore government contracts."

"Miss Evon, please be reasonable. Your company-"

"Is no longer interested in working the government. Tell Councilor Kadar that our interests no longer align and we will not be conducting anymore business with him or any other government official." The ice-type said while she shoved the canine passed us and into an elevator.

"He and Governor Caniner will be very upset with your decision, Miss Evon."

"Not my problem." My sister said as she pressed the button for the lobby and waved good-bye to the fire-type. "…Jackass." She muttered under her breath as the doors closed.

Poor Kathrin… being the oldest, she was entrusted with our family's business after our parents passed away. Not because she wanted to, but because daddy dearest asked her to. He always wanted to keep this a family business, even after we became successful. But there are days where Kat talks about giving up and just selling the company to someone else. Wouldn't blame her, though, our company hasn't been doing too good these past few years… But we're still filthy rich, so it can't be all that bad.

"He seemed nice." I grinned as Kathrin walked by.

"Not in the mood, Stephanie." My sister growled as she walked back to the conference room. "Miss Tales, can you please call your uncle and tell him I need to see him."

Carly blinked and gave my sister a curious look. "Why? What happened?"

Kathrin stopped and took a deep breath. "…Miss Tales, please… I need your uncle's advice… right now!" She said as she dragged her tail into the conference room and shut the door.

We all stood in silence for a moment before Gregory came back from the kitchen with a bottle of water in his paw. "What do you think happened?" He asked as he handed Richie the bottle.

"You heard what happened?" Carly asked.

"Kinda hard to ignore." Greg chuckled as he pointed to his large, vulpine ears. "But seriously, what happened? I've never heard Kat so angry before."

"She's been like that for weeks." Richard said as he finally found the energy to sit up. "The Councilor been bugging her about those old contracts dad always took when he was still alive. You know, the contracts that made us rich."

It took me a while to realize what those contracts were. During the Revolution, many budding morph companies were contracted to provide a number a different services during the war; from pharmaceutical needs to providing tools and food to works and then some. After the war, those few companies that helped the Gira Empire are now big names in the business world. My family's business, Evon Family Enterprises, is one such business.

Though, Dad never did tell us much about those contracts… he was always very secretive about them, acting almost as if he was ashamed of them. After he died, he stated in his will that wanted Kathrin to take over the business but under the condition that she never takes another contract. It was a strange request, but for the past two years, Kathrin's been fulfilling Dad's final wish.

"Oh… that makes sense, I guess. But if Kat's unwilling to work with them, why can't they just go to another company? Like Stark Enterprises?" Carly asked.

A chill ran up my spine as I heard that name. "Stark… Enterprises…" I growled. "Those stuck losers can bite my tail! The reason why the government isn't knocking on their door is because they don't have the same connections we do!"

Richard sighed as he ignored my outburst. "Who knows why they're so interested in us. Maybe the contracts were about developing some new kind of robot or a self-driving car or something. Either way, they're not leaving us alone."

"…Hey, I just noticed like half the family is missing! Where is everyone?" Carly asked as she looked around the house. "Usually Sophie is here looking to play."

"Oh right… Casey took Sophie to those swimming lessons." I scowled at the thought of our youngest sister being fooled into evolving into a slimy vaporeon like Casey. "She's probably trying to convince her to touch a water stone, or something."

"Stephanie." Greg glared at me. "Like the ice queen said, Sophie's at the Spear Pillar learning how to swim with Casey, Charlie's working all day today, so he won't be home till late."

"Ew… He's also working in Old Town, near the humans…" I cringed at the thought of that infested hellhole. "That reminds me, didn't James decide to play detective and went down there do find the human whose been stealing form out stores?" I asked in genuine interest.

Greg looked at me in surprised before nodding. "Well yes… He said something about going downtown to visit some of our smaller store by Old Town. He thinks he might be able to catch one these guys in the act. Though odds are, he probably won't be able to find the culprit. Whoever is behind this is clearly a master thief."

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Right…"

_**Location: Downtown New Morph City  
12:23 Hours**_

"Crap, crap, crap, crap!" A teenage human boy cried as he ran down the alley, being chased by a very angry jolteon morph. "Why does this always happen to me?!"

"Get back here you coward!" James Evon shouted as a jolt of electricity shot out of his paw, narrowly missing the human's hoodie as he quickly turned the corner and raced down the sidewalk.

"Hey aren't you worried about hitting someone?!" The human cried back as he raced down the sidewalk.

"The only one getting hurt here will be you!" The jolteon roared as he unleashed another thunderbolt, missing the human and narrowly hitting a buisel sitting at a bus stop.

The human rushed through the crowded street and attempted to lose the pursing jolteon in the busy streets, figuring the crazy fox would never endanger another person. When that didn't work, he quickly dove into another alley, hoping no one else would join the pursuit. Human thieves aren't exactly an uncommon site in this part of the city and most people tend to ignore them and wait for the police to quickly arrest the human. However, there are some cases where a human is blindsided by some 'heroic' morph looking for a chance to be on the news.

"Get back here! No one steals from an Evon family store and gets away with it!" James roared, running into the dead-end alley, only to stop and stare in confusion.

"…Where the hell did he go?!" He shouted glancing around the empty alleyway. He found nothing but a dumpster and a few black bags full of trash sitting next to it. Puzzled, the electric-type looked at the dumpster before looking up at a nearby fire escape. 'There's no way he'd be able to reach that… he must be hiding in that dumpster.' The jolteon grinned as he slowly turned around and pretended to leave the alley.

He took only a few steps before he heard a crinkling sound, his ears twitched as his body began to spark. "Gotcha!" James shouted as he released a massive thunder attack, illumining the alley in a blinding flash. When the flash died down, he covered his sensitive nose in a vain attempt to protect it from the scent of fried garbage. After a quick glance, he grinned at the site of a torn and charred hoodie, believing that he reduced the human into ash. "Damn… I don't know my own strength… Stephanie better watch out, or she might be next." He grinned as he turned to leave the alley for real this time.

His ears twitched as he suddenly heard the dumpster lid creek open. "Hey there." A voice said from behind him, causing the electric-type to turn around. He was immediately punched in the muzzle by the human who was had just jumped out of hiding. The fox fell to ground with a hard thud as the lone human stood ready to fight. "Didn't think it would be that easy, did ya?" The human smirked, waiting for his purser to respond.

He waited for a few seconds before relaxing his guard approaching the now unconscious morph, "…Really? I only hit you once and I didn't even punch you that hard." The human sighed as he shook his dead in disappointment. "What kind of pokémorph are you?"

"Mark, why must you always tempt fate?" A small voice called from behind the charred dumpster. A small, six tailed fox meekly came out from behind the dumpster he used as protection. "Also, why do you always use me bait? You know how much I hate being used as bait. I nearly got fried!" The feral vulpix whined.

The human chuckled as he knelt down to pat the fox on his head. "I don't always use you as bait, Tricky. Sometimes I use you as a distraction and other times, I use you as cannon fodder." Mark grinned turning his attention to the morph's pockets.

"Oh thanks! That makes me feel so much better!" Tricky angrily shouted. "I still can't believe that stupid plan of yours worked. Hell, it's dumb luck the moron didn't look inside of the dumpster you were hiding in… and we found this thing empty and with the lid open."

"If you think about, that's our lives in a nutshell. We're able to survive out here by pure, dumb luck." Mark remarked while searching for the jolteon's wallet. Didn't take long for him to find it and empty it. "What? Only thirty crowns?" He pouted.

"Don't see why you're complaining. That's still way more money any other human will see in a week." Tricky said as he scratched his ear. "Now come on! Let's go home before anyone else finds us!"

Sighing as he put the crowns in his pocket and tossed the now empty wallet on James face, he gave his partner a small nod before reaching back into the dumpster and grabbing a backpack. "…Alright, but before we head home, we need to stop at Old Town. Ryan wanted me to bring him this crap."

Tricky looked at the bag and blinked for a second. "Oh yeah! Now I remember. Man, that asshole must want us to die, seeing as we're running into more and more trouble on these runs."

Mark shrugged as be donned the backpack and took a peak out of the alley. "Yeah, these past few jobs haven't been easy… but the pay is too good to pass up. Beside, Ryan would never give us a job we couldn't handle."

Tricky rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the alley. "If you say so…" He sighed as the two quickly dashed out of the alley, heading straight for Old Town.

**_Now here's where see some glaring changes from the original. Such as Carly being Stephanie's tutor and Mark being chased by only one morph. Hope this wasn't too hard to follow and I hope I didn't disappoint anyone._**

**_I know crowns are an actual form of currency in some countries, and I choose it as the name of the Empire's currency here because...  
_****_well... I liked the way it sounds... Yeah, I'm lame. I know._**

**_Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and this treat... and don't get used to the whole two chapters a month deal. This was a one time deal... I think_**

**_Happy New Year, everyone!_**

**_As Always: Love it, Hate it, Just Review it  
Gunner out._**


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